Tour de France: Bardet wins summit to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc

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Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) won stage 19 of the Tour de France on Friday, escaping the yellow jersey group on the lower slopes of Mont Blanc and powering away from breakaway survivor Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) in the closing kilometres to take the win by 23 seconds over Joachim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). The young Frenchman moved to second overall.

Race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky) survived a scare after he hit the deck with Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) on a descent before the final climb, but his Team Sky teammates dutifully pulled him back to the group and out of trouble.

"I was up front trying to stay safe and stay out of trouble," Froome said. "I think I just hit one of the white lines and lost my front wheel. I'm lucky I wasn't seriously injured, just lost a bit of skin and banged my knee a bit."

Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), however, was not so lucky, going off the road before the final climb and failing to regain contact, surrendering his GC position of second overall at the start and slipping to 10th.

"At the bottom, I tried to come back, I had to try and close it there as fast as I could, otherwise it would have been difficult. Pete Stetina pulled on the flat part, but when you start 20 seconds down, I couldn't close it and I just exploded."

Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) fought back from a mechanical before the penultimate climb, slipping to fourth at the end of the day.

Froome now leads Bardet in the overall by 4:11, with Quintana jumping to third, 4:27 back.

Bardet's audacious move and jump to second overall was not part of any plan, the AG2R rider said, rather he was relying on instinct.

"The whole team put in an incredible performance," Bardet said. "Mikael Cherel just pushed, and pushed and pushed me to do it. At first I thought about GC, but when I caught Rui Costa I knew I was going to go for the stage win. That was all that mattered at that point. I have no more words."

Bardet capitalized on the confusion in the crashes and rain, although he admitted later he was flying a bit blind himself.

"I had no idea what was going on out there," he said. "I knew that if Mikael Cherel and I did a good descent together then we had a chance before the penultimate climb. I knew I that I could maintain my pace, but you're never 100 per cent sure. I've now won two stages in two years. I just hope can keep this going for two more days."

Tour de France stage 19 highlights video

How it unfolded

The 146km stage from Albertville to Mont Blanc included three categorized climbs that preceded the summit finish on the iconic mountain. With four climbs on the menu there was little surprise to see a large group escape in the early stage.

The group contained Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Robert Kiserlovski and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff), Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R-La Mondiale), George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo), Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac), Markus Burghardt and Amaël Moinard (BMC), Natnael Berhane (Dimension Data), Laurens ten Dam (Giant-Alpecin), Emmanuel Buchman (Bora-Argon 18), Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Thomas De Gendt and Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step), Daniel Navarro (Cofidis), Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange), Eduardo Sepulveda and Vegard Breen (Fortuneo-Vital Concept).

The second climb of the Col de la Forclaz saw Astana take up the reins, looking to promote Fabio Aru up the standings and secure a podium place. They reeled the break back to within a couple of minutes before finally settling down of the Col de la Forclaz de Queige.

The brief armistice was torn up on the approach to the Montee de Bisanne with Astana, and encouraging help from Katusha, splitting the field.

Yates suffered his mechanical here and was forced to chase just as the pace increased, while Tom Dumoulin's race came to an end after the two-time stage winner in this year's race crashed out.

The Montee de Bisanne saw Astana turn the screw, reducing the yellow jersey group to less than 50 riders as Yates clung to their coattails after his long chase.

The climb, 12.4km in length and with an average gradient of 8.2 per cent, became a war of attrition. Tejay van Garderen was among the early casualties, slipping back under the pressure from Astana, as Froome and Team Sky held firm, waiting in the wings as Aru's men grew in confidence.

Their pace was relentless as they brought the struggling break to within 1:45 with 50 kilometres remaining. Yates was also a casualty of Astana's pace-making, failing to regain contact over the top, but catching back on before the start of the final climb.

Majka led the break over the climb to take 25 points and seal his second title in the King of the Mountains.

Costa and Rolland slipped off the front on the wet descent, leaving a nine-rider group to chase until Rolland crashed hard but remounted his machine and was immediately back in the fray. Rain started to fall on the descent, but the rest of the group remained as Costa powered on alone.

Back in the yellow jersey group, Richie Porte was caught behind a crash and was forced to chase with three teammates dropping back to help. The effort certainly didn't help any plans Porte may have had to attack on the final climb.

Costa opened up a one-minute gap on the breakaway, which the yellow jersey group caught with 25km to go. Navarro jumped away in pursuit, dangling just ahead of the Froome group for several kilometres but eventually succumbing to the chase as well.

Mollema slipped in the wet conditions and took a detour into the grass, never able to get back on terms with the yellow jersey group. Froome was the next victim of the slippery conditions, getting a bike from teammate Geraint Thomas to get back into the action.

"I could see Froome on the front and he was saying chill on the radio but he doesn't do chill, does he?" Thomas said. "All of a sudden he's on the floor and going 'I need a bike, I need a bike,' so I gave him mine. Then I waited for the team car although they did drive passed me. I wasn't going to run to the finish but luckily they stopped a few hundred meters later and I got on this, and that was that."

Bardet escaped the group on the lower slopes of Mont Blanc with 10km to go, putting more pressure on Froome, whose torn jersey showed the nastiness of his crash.

Bardet had Costa in his sights a couple of kilometres later, and the two-man duel to the finish was on as the yellow jersey group remained one minute back. Bardet caught Costa with 7km to go, immediately taking up the pace-making with Costa on his wheel.

Bardet dropped Costa on the steepest pitches of the climb with 3.2km remaining, while in the yellow jersey group Porte and Quintana (Movistar) attacked. Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) made a move off the front, with the added pressure seeing Yates continue to yo-yo in and out of the group.

Porte put in another move with 2km to go, and Quintana immediately jumped on his wheel. Aru dragged the group up to the duo then counter attacked, gaining a small advantage.

Valverde (Movistar) tried to drag Quintana away from Froome, but the Briton, led by teammate Wout Poels, dug deep to limit any losses, finishing 36 seconds behind Bardet and maintaining his overall lead.

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